Scribe tribe rides with kudo favorites

'Lost,' 'Enthusiasm' top tube nods for WGA

By DAVE MCNARY

'Brokeback Mountain' scribes Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry roped in adapted screenplay kudos at the Writers Guild of America Awards.

Paul Haggis, left, and Bobby Moresco were all smiles after landing original screenplay trophies for their work on 'Crash.'

'Lost' scribes, headed by creators J.J. Abrams, bottom right, and Damon Lindelof, bottom center, celebrate their dramatic series award for television at the WGA Awards on Saturday.

See winners

Opting for the season's front-runners, the Writers Guild of America presented its top screenwriting awards Saturday to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for "Brokeback Mountain" and to Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco for "Crash."

McMurtry and Ossana won for adapting "Brokeback Mountain," based on Annie Proulx's 11-page story about two decades of mournful romance between two ranch hands. Haggis and Moresco won the original trophy for "Crash," a gritty examination of racial tension over 36 hours in contemporary Los Angeles.

Winners of the 58th annual WGA Awards, based on voting by the 13,000 WGA members, were announced Saturday night at simultaneous events held at the Hollywood Palladium and the Waldorf-Astoria in Gotham.

Focus Features' "Brokeback Mountain," which leads in Oscar nominations with eight, topped the screenplays for "Capote," "The Constant Gardener," "A History of Violence" and "Syriana." Ossana also produced "Brokeback" with Focus Features chief James Schamus.

In her acceptance speech, Ossana cited Proulx's story, the "Brokeback" cast and Ang Lee's direction, while McMurtry joked about spilling his dessert on his tux.

"This award means so much to me because it's from other writers," Ossana said.

She also included thanks to the owners of the Mr. Catfish restaurant in Tucson, Ariz., where she met writing partner McMurtry in 1985.

Lionsgate's "Crash," which garnered six Oscar mentions, won the WGA award over  scripts for "Cinderella Man," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "The Squid and the Whale."

Haggis also directed "Crash" and produced with Cathy Schulman. Noting that his grandfather had worked as a janitor to provide for his family, Haggis said of the award, "I want to dedicate this to all the parents who sacrifice so we can accomplish our dreams."

Moresco added, "This is for every writer who sits in his room at 4 o'clock in the morning at his desk and is absolutely convinced that he belongs in another business, but he writes the next line anyway."

Haggis, McMurtry, Moresco and Ossana are all first-time WGA winners. Haggis was nominated last year for "Million Dollar Baby," and McMurtry was nominated 35 years ago for "The Last Picture Show."

WGA winners have matched the Oscars six times in the past 11 years in the original category, including last year, when Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth won both awards for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." In the adapted category, winners have matched seven times in the past 11 years, including in 2005, when Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor took both trophies for "Sideways."

The WGA awards keep the momentum going for "Brokeback" and "Crash," which are vying for best picture Oscar along with "Capote," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Munich." "Brokeback" won four Golden Globes, including one for script, along with the DGA and the PGA awards; "Crash" won the SAG award for top ensemble.

"Brokeback" is competing for the adapted screenplay Oscar against "Capote," "The Constant Gardener," "A History of Violence" and "Munich." "Crash" is up for the Oscar in the original category against "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Match Point," "The Squid and the Whale" and "Syriana."

In the WGA's TV awards presented Saturday, ABC's "Lost" won the drama series award while HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" took the comedy series trophy. The "Lost" award went to 23 writers, while star Larry David is the only writer for "Curb."

ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" drew the inaugural award for new series; presentation by cast member Ellen Pompeo was delayed 10 minutes due to an audience member requiring medical attention. Emcee Jon Favreau broke the tension afterward by quipping, "I was told everything will be fine as long as you didn't eat the chicken."

The WGA also launched awards for individual episodes, with Lawrence Kaplow winning in drama for the "Autopsy" episode of Fox's "House" and Jenji Kohan winning in comedy for the pilot of Showtime's "Weeds."

HBO drew both longform trophies, with Margaret Nagle copping the original award for "Warm Springs" and Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely taking the adapted award for "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers." Nagle noted that she had written "Warm Springs" while selling purses from her car.

Michael Price won the animated award for the "Mommie Beerest" episode of Fox's "The Simpsons," topping five other "Simpsons" episodes. George Stevens Jr. and Sara Lukinson won the comedy/variety/specials trophy for CBS' "The Kennedy Center Honors"; Stevens and Lukinson have now won six WGA awards each.

NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" took the comedy/variety series prize. CBS' "The Young and the Restless" drew the trophy for daytime serials; Kevin Arkadie won children's episodic and specials for Noggin's "New Charlie (Miracle's Boys)"; and Willy Holtzman took children's longform for Showtime's "Edge of America."

Dan Rather presented the Paul Selvin Award, which honors portrayals of constitutional and civil rights issues, to "Good Night, and Good Luck" producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. "He was and still is the premium standard by which all broadcast journalists are judged," Rather said of the pic's subject, Edward R. Murrow.

James Garner presented the Paddy Chayefsky TV Laurel Award to Stephen Cannell, and Geena Davis presented the Screen Laurel Award to Lawrence Kasdan. Matt Dillon presented Frank Pierson with the Morgan Cox service award.

Alan Cumming emceed the Gotham event, which included honorary kudos to Marshall Brickman for the Ian McLellan Hunter Award, Warren Leight for the Richard B. Jablow service award and James L. Brooks for the inaugural Herb Sargent Award for comedy excellence.

And the winners are...

SCREEN WINNERS

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
"Crash", Screenplay by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco, Story by Paul Haggis, Lionsgate

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
"Brokeback Mountain", Screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, Based on the Short Story by Annie Proulx, Focus Features

TELEVISION WINNERS

DRAMATIC SERIES
"Lost", Written by JJ Abrams, Kim Clements, Carlton Cuse, Leonard Dick, Paul Dini, Brent Fletcher, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Adam Horowitz, Jennifer M. Johnson, Christina M. Kim, Edward Kitsis, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon L. Lindelof, Lynne Litt, Monica Macer, Steven Maeda, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Janet Tamaro, Christian Taylor, Craig Wright; ABC

COMEDY SERIES
"Curb Your Enthusiasm", Larry David; HBO

NEW SERIES
"Grey's Anatomy", Written by Zoanne A. Clack, Ann Hamilton, Kip Koenig, Stacy McKee, James Parriott, Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, Shonda Rhimes, Mimi Schmir, Gabrielle Stanton, Krista Vernoff, Harry Werksman Jr., Mark Wilding; ABC

EPISODIC DRAMA
"Autopsy (House)," Written by Lawrence Kaplow; Fox

EPISODIC COMEDY
"You Can't Miss the Bear," Pilot ("Weeds"), Written by Jenji Kohan; Showtime

LONG FORM - ORIGINAL
"Warm Springs," Written by Margaret Nagle; HBO

LONG FORM - ADAPTED
"The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, "Teleplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Based on the book by Roger Lewis; HBO

ANIMATION
"Mommie Beerest" ("The Simpsons"), Written by Michael Price; Fox

COMEDY/VARIETY - MUSIC, AWARDS, TRIBUTES - SPECIALS
"The Kennedy Center Honors," Written by George Stevens, Jr. and Sara Lukinson; CBS

COMEDY/VARIETY - (including talk) SERIES
"Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Written by Mike Sweeney, Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Dan Goor, Michael Gordon, Tim Harrod, Berkley Johnson, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg; NBC

DAYTIME SERIALS
"The Young & the Restless," Head Writer Kay Alden, Head Writer John F. Smith, Written by Janice Ferri, Jim Houghton, Natalie Minardi Slater, Sally Sussman Morina, Sara Bibel, Eric Freiwald, Linda Schreiber, Joshua S. McCaffrey, Marc Hertz, Sandra Weintraub; CBS

CHILDREN'S SCRIPT - EPISODIC AND SPECIALS
"New Charlie" (Miracle's Boys), Written by Kevin Arkadie, Based on the novel by Jacqueline Woodson; Noggin

CHILDREN'S SCRIPT - LONG FORM OR SPECIAL
"Edge of America", Written by Willy Holtzman; Showtime

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT -- CURRENT EVENTS
"Someone's Watching", Written by Edward Gray; Discovery Times Channel
"The Torture Question", Written by Michael Kirk; PBS

DOCUMENTARY SCRIPT -- OTHER THAN CURRENT EVENTS
"Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson: Part 1", Written by Geoffrey C. Ward; PBS

(TV) NEWS SCRIPT -- REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN OR BREAKING REPORT
"Peter Jennings Remembered" ("ABC World News"), Written by Steve Alperin, Charles Gibson; ABC

(TV) NEWS SCRIPT -- ANALYSIS, FEATURE, OR COMMENTARY
"The Mattew Shepard Story: Secrets of a Murder" ("20/20") Written by Richard Gerdau, Stephen Jimenez, Glenn Silber; ABC

(TV) GRAPHIC ANIMATION
"Inauguration 2005", Written by Steve Bottorff, Eric Diga, Lisa Fisher, Alice Kreit, Casey Sattler; ABC

RADIO WINNERS

(RADIO) NEWS SCRIPT-- REGULARLY SCHEDULED, BULLETIN OR BREAKING REPORT
"World New This Week", Written by Marianne J. Pryor; ABC

(RADIO) NEWS SCRIPT -- ANALYSIS, FEATURE OR COMMENTARY
"Passages" "(CBS News)", Written by Gail Lee; CBS

ON-AIR PROMOTION (RADIO OR TELEVISION)
"Sin City" and "Marine" and "Kirstie Alley" and "B.T.K." and "Generic" ("Dateline"), "Road to Inauguration" and "Brian Williams Image" ("NBC Nightly News"), "Runaway Bride" (NBC), Written by Adam Kessler; NBC